Three more directors are tangentially attached to the new Star Wars. (With a heavy emphasis on "tangentially.") Who might costar with Mark Wahlberg in Transformers 4? Tom Hiddleston discusses Loki's role in the Thor sequel. Plus X-Men: Days of Future Past, American Horror Story, and more!

Spoilers from here on out!

Top image from The Hobbit.

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Star Wars: Episode VII

I really don't want to have to report on every last half-baked theory on who might direct this thing between now and 2015 — although I fear there may not be all that much choice in the matter — so let's zip through the latest one fairly quickly. Basically, original Brave director Brenda Chapman originally left Pixar to work for LucasFilm on some mystery project, which you'd tend to assume would be an animated film, especially since she's fairly explicitly said she works for LucasFilm Animation. But, as will likely happen with every director who has a Twitter account, someone tweeted at Ms. Chapman that she should direct the live-action Star Wars movie, and she thanked the person for the compliment and didn't immediately deny the possibility.

And... that's more or less all there is to this one, making it roughly as substantial as every other Star Wars director rumor out there. Although... since we are talking about old Pixar directors, I will point out that Brad Bird — who strikes me as by far the most intriguing pick to direct the thing — is now officially not directing the fifth Mission: Impossible movie, so his schedule is now theoretically open. But all of this still remains pretty much just baseless supposition and wild speculation, so I wouldn't even waste your grains of salt on all this just yet. Also, I totally failed to zip through that quickly. I'll try harder next time. [Bleeding Cool]

Meanwhile, Ben Affleck has taken himself out of the running, while Captain America director Joe Johnston says he would theoretically be interested. Yeah...that's the level of detail I'm aiming for from now on, for all our sakes. [MTV and Cinema Blend]

The Avengers 2

Original film cinematographer Seamus McGarvey sounds like he will likely return to the same duties for the sequel:

"Well, you know, I'm not really allowed to talk about these things. They make us sign these ridiculous nondisclosure agreements… Joss and I have been talking about 'Avengers 2.' We got along great on the first one and I hope that all works out. He has asked me to shoot it."

Thor: The Dark World

There's a bunch of new set photos, featuring a great look at the movie's villains, the Dark Elves, including Christopher Eccleston as Malekith the Accursed. Check out a bigger version, plus tons more photos, at the links. [MTV Splash Page and Splash News Online via Newsarama]

Yeah! [laughs] He's certainly eaten humble pie. The springboard for us in the second Thor film is at the end of Avengers you see Thor and Loki beamed up back to Asgard. The first question that we all asked was "what happens next? What does Odin have to say about the events of Avengers?" What's Jane Foster been up to while she wasn't involved?" It's really exciting, actually. We're literally half way through - we started at the start of August and we should be finished by Christmas. It's going beautifully.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Newly reestablished director Bryan Singer took to Twitter to answer a key question — whether his return to the director's chair also means the return of the black leather uniforms from his original X-Men movies:

For those of you wondering... no leather suits. #xmen

It would seem the more colorful, traditional-looking uniforms introduced in X-Men: First Class are more or less here to stay. [@BryanSinger]

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Transformers 4

Now that the internet persuaded Michael Bay to cast Mark Wahlberg as the lead in his fourth Transformers movie — and because the internet's subsequent attempts to persuade Michael Bay to cast a talking pie as Wahlberg's sidekick never really took off — it's time to cast the other key roles. For the part of Wahlberg's daughter, a high school senior, the names linked to the role thus far included Home and Away's Isabelle Cornish, The Last Airbender's Nicola Peltz, The Three Musketeers's Gabrielle Wilde, and Margaret Qualley, who at this point is probably best known as actress Andie MacDowell's daughter. And while that last tidbit mostly just makes me think Malcolm MacDowell would be the perfect choice to voice the talking pie, there are also five actors linked to the actual main supporting male role, which is the race car driver boyfriend of Wahlberg's daughter. Those reportedly would be Taken 2's Luke Grimes, Terra Nova's Landon Liboiron, Weeds's Hunter Parrish, The Delivery Man's Jack Reynor, and Maleficent's Brenton Thwaites. [Heat Vision via Coming Soon]

Godzilla

"We haven't really worked out what we're doing yet. We don't start shooting until March of next year. I'm in the process of testing what our visual approach will be. It's wonderful working with Gareth. He's a wonderful filmmaker and somebody who understands the camera. It's great working with people who understand the history of cinema and the unique properties of cinematography and use the camera like a writer uses words, so it's not just a witness to big explosions and spectacle. It's something that has a thought out and intelligent approach to storytelling."

Kick-Ass 2

Carrie

Boys Don't Cry director Kimberly Peirce discusses the decision to cast age-appropriate actors in her new adaptation of the Stephen King novel, starting with Kick-Ass and Hugo star Chloe Moretz in the title role:

Well, first of all, Chloë is very close to the age of Carrie – like a year away. I did want to cast age-appropriate. Ansel, the boy who takes her to the prom, is 18. The guy who plays Billy is Billy's age, and I don't think that actors have to be limited by age. But there's something about youth that is very hard to capture. Chloë has youth. Her confidence , to me, was the biggest challenge to her doing the role. Because when I first met her … I was like, "You're hanging out with Martin Scorsese, you're hanging out with Tim Burton, you have the world at your feet, you are walking the red carpet, and you're shaking hands like you're in charge, and you have so much confidence, but it's in your DNA." And I was like, "You know who you're completely opposite from? Carrie!" So I was like, "You have all this stuff that I'm glad you have as a human being, but to be this character we gotta lose the confidence, we gotta lose the childishness, and we have to have a need for rebellion." So those were the things we created.

She also addresses how she might grapple with filming a new version of Brian DePalma's iconic ending from the original film:

Well, Brian said to me, "So what are you gonna do about that end?" And I was like, "Brian, I know you revolutionized cinema …" [laughs] Of course it's on my mind! I'm not blind to the brilliance of his movie, but I'm also not blind to the fact that I can't go down a road that he's done. You have to be mindful. And I just don't think you have to try to duplicate something that is so unique and so brilliant and revolutionized cinema. I mean, maybe I should be bolder and do it, but I think I'm a little too wise to. So I think you do something different, I think you just make sure your movie is what it is and that it fires on all cylinders as much as you can. And if you find yourself in a situation where you can top it, do it. But you probably won't.

Doctor Who

Tomorrow night is the United Kingdom's annual Children In Need Telethon, for which the new Doctor Who has often provided special mini-episodes, most notably the multi-Doctor "Time Crash." This year will feature a special prequel for the Christmas special, as well as the first full trailer for the episode. Here's a hi-res promo image for the prequel, which finds Matt Smith ditching — or at least temporarily modifying — his usual eccentric academic look for something a little darker and possibly more velvety. [Doctor Who News]

Neil Gaiman offers some thoughts on his upcoming Cybermen episode:

"I can tell you that there are Cybermen in it. It will be a stand-alone episode, I don't know if it will be number twelve or thirteen. It will be the series' penultimate episode. But it has a beginning, a middle and an end... Steven [Moffat] wrote to me and asked if I wanted to make the Cybermen scary again. I thought back to myself at the age of six or seven, The Moonbase, Tomb of the Cybermen… I saw them when they were first broadcast. The Cybermen were much scarier than the Daleks, because they didn't make any noise. The Daleks moved around all over the place shouting "Exterminate", etc. With the Cybermen, it's different. You turn around and bam! There they are. It's scary. I told him that I was going to take the Cybermen from the sixties […] and see what I could do. I don't know if it's going to work, we'll see."

As much as I might love the show to actually bust out the old designs from the 1960s — particularly the loopy, singsong-voiced Cybermen from their debut adventure "The Tenth Planet" — I'm guessing the "from the sixties" thing is more about tone and approach rather than anything super concrete, but we shall see. [Den of Geek]

Fringe

Here are some set photos. Check out the link for a bit more context on the specifics of shooting. [YVR Shoots]

When asked about his writing duties for the rest of the season, Fringe staffer David Fury tweeted the tenth episode is the next and last episode he is writing, and it's entitled "Anamoly XB-6783..." It's a little unclear whether that ellipsis is indeed part of the episode title. [SpoilerTV]

The Walking Dead

Here are short descriptions for episodes six through eight, which brings us up through the midseason finale:

American Horror Story

He was in a Santa suit sucking on a candy cane with a girl on his lap. What is going on there?
Well, I can tell you Ian and I had a lot of amazing Christmas things to do together. Sister Mary Eunice has something to do with why his character is wearing that Santa suit. She has a lot of Christmas spirit, that's for sure.

So there will be a Christmas episode of American Horror Story?
Oh yes. Of course, right? That was one of my favorite ones to shoot, actually. Ian and I got to do some really evil things together, and I have to say it was a career highlight. He's such a wonderful man. We had great stuff in the common room, with all of those background actors, the inmates. I can say Christmas will never be the same for me after shooting that episode. I'll never look at a Christmas tree the same way.

There's tons more at the link, including just what's going on with her character's possession. [Vulture]

Supernatural

The thirteenth episode of season eight has reportedly had its title changed from "Everyone Hates" to the slightly less evocative "Trial And Error." This episode also reportedly introduces "a hot Cowgirl called Ellie who is concealing some secrets" and "Alice and Cindy Cassity who appear to be twins in their 30's, daughters of Cyrus." [SpoilerTV]

Haven

The eleventh and twelfth episodes of the current third season are reportedly called "Last Goodbyes" and "Reunion", respectively. [SpoilerTV]